


Fins

by Reyesthighs



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Bondage, Breeding, Breeding Kink, Gabe is handsy, Groping, Jack gets dragged around a lot, Kidnapping, Licking, M/M, Manhandling, Mating, Medical Experimentation, Medical Kink, Mer! Gabe, Mer! Jack, Mermaids, Mpreg, Neck Kissing, Nesting, Non-Consensual Groping, Penis In Vagina Sex, Research, Rough Kissing, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, jack has both genitals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 12,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26182090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyesthighs/pseuds/Reyesthighs
Summary: Mercy has dedicated her life to researching the mer that live in the small cove, and has been longing for a chance to get her hands on one of themJack has never been to the deeper parts of the ocean, and therefore never met a deepsea merGabriel is looking for a mate, a topside breeder to keep him company, and he knows just the place to look for one
Relationships: Doomfist: The Successor | Akande Ogundimu/Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Doomfist: The Successor | Akande Ogundimu/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	1. #1

Peering out from under my little overhang I watch the other mer swim around excitedly. It's early in the morning and the sun is just peaking over the horizon. The water is warm, and despite the early hour, mer are swimming around excitedly.

Opposite to the entrance of the cove is a large human structure with a wall of glass facing toward us. Behind the glass humans walk around, hurrying back and forth in their respective levels, doing whatever it is humans do.

From my spot I can see a familiar human leading a large group of new humans up to the glass. She does a lot of pointing and gesturing out into the waters, drawing the attention of a few curious mer, including me. Creeping forward along the ocean floor I swim closer, getting a closer look at the humans. They stare at us, watching mesmerized as we swim ever closer.

The woman turns towards us, smiling brightly as she speaks to her audience. I can't hear her because of the glass separating us, but I assume she's talking about us, given as she is currently gesturing in our direction, pointing at mer as they swim past.

I swim up to the glass behind the woman, studying her curiously. A few of the people in the crowd Infront of her point towards me, and she turns, looking surprised. Turning back to the crowd she returns to talking, occasionally turning back to gesture to me.

________________________________________________

Gesturing to the mer outside I continue my speech, smiling at the curious mer looking through the glass at me. “if you look outside to my left, you can see the nursery area, where all the pups go to play while their parents are busy. As you can see, there is always at least one adult with the pups.” I explain, trying to gesture around the mer eagerly following my finger. “mer are very curious” I say, moving my finger around so the mer will follow it, demonstrating my point. 

The students write stuff down in their notes, thats a good sign. They’re interested, which means they will be invested in their work. “have you been conducting any experiments on the mers reaction to vibrations?” a young man asks, he’s tall and lanky with a green tank top. “we have not conducted any official research on the subject, though it has been noted that they recognize the vibrations from the boats we use” I explain, gesturing to one of the many boats in the water above.

“does this facility conduct any research on pups and the gestation cycle of mer?” another person speaks up, a girl with long brown hair and a pink shirt. “I’m glad you asked!” I exclaim “we have multiple breeders with pups in our possession, as well as two who are carrying right now!” I make a mental note to assign her to study under me, as I help with pups, pregnancies and general intake. 

“does anyone else have any questions?” I ask, waiting a few moments before moving on when nobody raises their hands. “alright then! If you’ll follow me to the next room, I will be assigning you to your stations” I say, gesturing to the door.

The students follow me into the room as instructed, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find the mer from before still following me. “my assistant will be handing out your papers, which will have your room numbers and the name or names of the people you will be working with” I say, as Lena begins handing out papers.

“please find your way to your stations and feel free to get to know your partners, have a good day!” I call as people begin walking away, making their way to their stations, no doubt. Three people approach me, looking down at their papers. The girl and the boy from before, as well as a tall, muscular girl with long red hair and a gear tattoo on her shoulder. 

“are you Angela?” the woman asks, glancing up from her paper. “yes, I am! Are you one of the students I will be working with?” I ask, smiling brightly at her. “erm, yes I believe so” she says, gesturing to the paper. “nice to meet you! I’m DR. Ziegler but you can call me Angela” I say, extending my hand to shake. She glances at it, before a determined smile spreads across her face and she gives my hand a firm shake. “I’m Brigitte Lindholm, nice to meet you” she grins, looking happy. 

“and who are you?” I ask, the other two students, who are excitedly comparing notes and pointing at the mer as they swim past. “oh, uh, my name is Hana” she says, blushing. “and he’s Lucio” she says, pointing to the boy who shows no signs of ever tearing himself away from the window. “nice to meet you two! I heard you were interested in the pups, am I correct?” I ask. “yeah, they’re just so cute!” she gushes, squeezing her clip board to her chest. 

“great to hear! I’m in control of your placement for now, and lucky for you I have jurisdiction over that field of research, and I think you’d be perfect for the job!” I say, watching her face light up as she processes the information. “really!?” she asks, practically bouncing in place. “Yes, really” I say, taking one of the papers off my clip board and handing it to her. “these are the files for each of the carrying mer we have in custody, and in the top corner I’ve written down the room number for where they are held” I say. She grabs the paper, scanning it. “can I go now?” she asks. I nod, and she dashes off excitedly.   
Approaching Lucio from behind I tap him on the shoulder, and he jumps, removing the big headphones with stylized frogs on them off his ears, looking at me. “I heard you wanted to research the affects of vibrations on the mer in the bay” I say, and he nods. “well, if you can write down what equipment you need, I can send a request for the MPS to put it in the budget” I explain, handing him the form. “thank you!” he says, grabbing the sheet and the pen I offer him.


	2. #2

I’m up with the sun the next day, and as always, so are the humans. I don’t think they sleep. Ever. Yawning I stretch, flopping down on the stone out cropping I’m currently napping on. The sun shines down on me from in the clouds, warming my skin and not helping me wake up at all. Swishing my tail lazily, disturbing the sand and making a big cloud in the water. 

A shadow appears behind the cloud of dust, swimming up from behind it. I tense, ready to fight should it be something like a shark. Thankfully, it’s just Vincent, who snickers when he sees how tense I am. “morning jack” he says, settling beside me. “any plans today” Vincent asks, resting his arm on my back. “oh, nothing much, might hunt. Might find some shiny things for some jewelry” I shrug, yawning and popping my jaw uncomfortably. 

“I could help you” Vincent offers “I know a good spot to get some string”. I think about it, I’d much rather search on my own, not many others understand my taste in baubles. “no thanks, I think I’ll go on my own” I say, awkwardly. He pouts, looking down at me. “really? You wouldn’t go searching with you best friend?” he pouts, sighing loudly. “I guess I’ll just have to go searching all by my lonesome” 

“alright, fine. You can come” I relent. He always does this. “yay!” he cheers, darting up from his spot. Begrudgingly I get up, following Vincent as he leads me to the spot where he says we can get the best string. It’s a long swim, and soon I get tired. Thankfully, Vincent assures me we are close.

“are you sure about this?” I ask, glancing around “we’re going kind of…deep” I say, carefully. I don’t want Vincent to be insulted. “it’s fine” Vincent brushes it off “what are you scared of, sea monsters?” he jokes. I blush, rubbing my arm sheepishly. He’s right, I’m being foolish. Speeding up to swim side by side with him, and he gives me a light punch on the arm. “come on, it’s right over here” he says, pointing to a wrecked boat on the bottom of the sea floor.

It’s covered in shadow, and there are no fish in sight, which is odd. I glance around, nervous. But Vincent is already swimming enthusiastically towards the boat, unbothered by the ominous feeling in the water. Taking a deep breath, I swim forward, rushing to catch up to Vincent who’s already disappearing into the downed ship.

The ship is a maze of mossy, waterlogged wood. It’s dark, really dark. “Vincent?” I call out, swimming in a random direction. Swimming over an open door, I can’t help but peer into the dark room it leads to. Something moves in the room, flashing by so fast I can’t make it out. I lurch back, terrified. My heart pounds in my chest, and I sit still, Searching the darkness for any sort of movement in the darkness. Seeing nothing, I let out a sigh of relief. It was a fish at most. Probably not even a fish, just a trick of the light.  
“Vincent?” I call again, moving on. “yeah?” he asks, popping out of a room beside me, startling me. “Vincent!” I snap, giving him a light punch. “sorry” he grumbles, dragging me inside “look! There’s so much string in here” he says, gesturing broadly at the array of string and rope littering the room. “wow, that is a lot of string” I agree, swimming forward to inspect some of the string. It’s nice, thin and braided well so it wont fray or come apart. 

I grab the length of the string, it’s long enough to wrap around my waist twice and still be comfortable. I grab it, taking it with me. “told you it was worth it” Vincent says, spotting the string I grabbed. “let’s just get out of here” I say, shuddering. ‘fine, you big pup” he snarks, brushing past me. I follow him out, around corners, through hallways and through holes in the wall. 

As I swim up a hall, I spot the very corner of a tailfin rounding the corner. It’s black, unlike Vincent’s golden coppery scales. Curious, I round the corner, finding the hallway empty. Odd, but I’m probably just imagining things. Or, maybe another mer is here looking for interesting things and string, either way, nothing to be worried about.

Turning back around, I swim forward, trying to find Vincent, only to find he left me behind. Without him I’m completely lost in this massive, poorly lit place. Whimpering to myself, I continue forward. If I head in one direction long enough, I’m bound to find a way out! 

I keep swimming, going forward for as long as I can before hitting a dead end. There are two completely dark rooms to my left and right, that both look identical in the fact that they are pitch black and I can’t see into them. Left or right, not a hard decision, right? The right door is closest to the top, and therefore the bright and sunny shallows I’m used to. However, the left is tilted towards the bottom, and we entered the ship from a hole in the bottom.

I decide to go left, I know of one exit that exists and its basic location, why waste time trying to find an exit that might not exist? I turn to enter the room, only to have big, muscular arms wrap around my torso, pulling me away. “lost, sweetie?” a strange voice asks, letting me go as I propel myself away. “who are you!?” I question, looking at the stranger. His hair is short and curly, and his eyes are a dazzling red color, peering out from a canopy of dark lashes. Like his hair and tail, his skin is dark too, though not nearly as dark. It’s more of an attractive brown color a human might get from spending time under the sun.

His tail is longer than any I’ve ever seen, and he has an extra fin on the back of his tail covered in wicked looking barbs. His scales are a rich, dark black with hints of red so dark it can only be seen as red when looked upon in a certain way, as opposed to my bright blue scales and Vincent’s golden and copper scales. Aside from his hair, skin, eyes and tail, another thing that sets him apart from me and Vincent is the neatly groomed bears that’s hardly more than overgrown stubble, really.   
“relax” he chuckles, smiling good naturedly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just…looking for something” he explains, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “anyways, you look lost. Let me show you to the exit” he offers. “o-ok” I say, following him.

He navigates through the twists and turns like he’s been doing it his whole life, guiding me along with him. Every once in awhile he glances back to make sure I’m keeping up, giving me an encouraging smile or a thumbs up. He reaches the exit first, stopping and waiting for me. “you go on ahead” he says, gesturing to the exit. “thank you” I way, quickly swimming through the small hole.

“what took you so long?” Vincent asks, annoyed. “sorry, it’s just I got lost and…” I glance back behind, only the mer isn’t there. “and?” Vincent asks, impatient. “and nothing, I was scared” I shrug. I don’t know why I don’t tell him about the weird stranger, but it doesn’t feel right.


	3. #3

“how about this one?” Vincent asks, holding up a green and brown shell. “no, I’d rather prefer something blue, white or gold” I repeat, tossing another shell over my shoulder from the pile Infront of me. It’s been four days since the boat, and I’m beginning to think I completely imagined the strange mer. Mer just don’t look like that. We have bright colors and average sized tails. Sure, some of us have dark skin, but it’s either a very dark brown to help us blend in with kelp forests or it’s pale white like mine to soak up the sun and blend into the white sands of the beaches. 

“you’re so picky!” he grouches, inspecting a dull brown shell. He holds it up to his waist, inspecting the color compared to his scales. Happy with how it looks, he uses his needle to drill a sloppy hole in the shell, threading it on the string and moving on. Sifting through the pile of shells in front of me, I spy a nice-looking shard of light blue sea glass buried deep in the pile. Reaching my hand in, I grab it, holding it up to my scales. It’s gorgeous, it reflects the light perfectly and is just see through enough to see my scales through. Carefully carving a hole in it I thread my string through, admiring it as it slides on.

“like I said, picky” he says, grabbing yet another random brown colored shell. “I’m not picky!” I counter, continuing to sift through the pile. “sure, you aren’t.” he rolls his eyes. “well, you obviously aren’t going to find anything of interest here” he scoffs “lets head back to the bay”

I glance back at the pile. I want to spend more time looking for stuff, but Vincent’s right, I probably won’t find anything. “alright” I agree, following him back. “I’m kind of hungry anyways”. Swimming back to the bay, i happily return to my little grotto, curling up on one of the many smooth slabs of rock that line the sides of my grotto.

There are many caves just like this one bored into the sheer cliff face. The cliff used to not be here, but the humans made it when they removed the seafloor to build their building deeper so they could see into the bay. They are really determined to look in the bay, for some reason. I know that my neighbors tried covering the wall of windows with mud so it would blend in more, but they just sent people in strange equipment to clean it off. Humans are just odd.

Yawning to myself I get comfortable on my favorite slab of rock, wiggling around and swishing my tail contentedly. Vincent enters my grotto, swimming up to me and pushing me over until I’m squished between him and the wall. “I brought food” he says, handing me a fish. “thank you” I say, taking it from him. Careful of the many bones, I nibble on my fish. 

When I’m done, I grab the bones, swimming outside to dump the bones outside. When I come back in, I see Vincent has just lazily tossed the bones onto the floor. Sighing I scoop the bones up and take them outside as well. “jack you’re too uptight” he groans, splaying out to take up the whole rock slab.   
“I’m not uptight!” I defend, settling on another, less comfortable slab. “Yes, you are” he says, gesturing to my clean cave. “you never let this place get dirty!” he exclaims. “maybe I don’t like living in filth” I huff, crossing my arms. “whatever” he scoffs, rolling his eyes. Ignoring him I close my eyes, trying to relax. 

I can’t fall asleep, however, due to Vincent’s incessant talking. He won’t stop talking, despite me not answering any of his many questions and my general refusal to add anything to the conversation. And eventually I am forced to abandon my cave in favor of finding a nice spot in the rubble beside the cave to sun with everyone else. 

I settle myself on a nice, big rock with plenty of sun, happy to find that it’s already warm. Getting comfortable I close my eyes, content. My contentment does not last long, however, as soon a large figure blots out the sun, the shadow falling over me so I crack one eye open, looking up to see who’s in the way. To my surprise it’s the mer from the boat, the strange one that doesn’t look like everyone else. 

Spotting me, he swims up to the rock next to me, laying on it with his back to the sun, mimicking my pose with my arms resting in front of me and hanging off the edge of the slanted rock. “is this rock taken?” he asks, stretching a little. “no” I respond, staring at him. Does he not remember me? 

“I’m Gabriel” he introduces, crossing his arms and resting his head on them so he can look at me. “my name is jack” I respond, peering into his eyes, trying to figure out if he remembers me or not. Finally, I give up and decide to just ask. “do you not remember me?” 

By now, he has drawn the attention of all the others, who are now watching him with interest. Despite all the eyes on him, he seems unfazed, focused entirely on sunning and our conversation. “I remember you” he says “why, afraid you wouldn’t have a chance?” he jokes, earning a grin from me. 

I’m about to reply when I’m interrupted by Vincent, who swims up and rests on the rock to me. “hi!” he greets enthusiastically. “I’m Vincent, jacks best friend. Who are you?” he asks, peering over my shoulder to look at Gabriel. “I’m Gabriel” he answers coolly, giving Vincent a weird look. 

“right, well, I’m going to look for more things” I say, peeling myself away from Vincent, who clings to me and tries to convince me to stay with him. “I’ll come with you.” He states, despite my protests. Sighing in frustration I don’t argue with him. I can’t make him leave me alone so I guess he’s going to come with me. 

“do you mind if I tag along?” Gabriel asks, sitting up and stretching in away that shows off all the muscles in his arms. “uh- yeah I don’t mind” I stutter with wide eyes at the same time Vincent blurts “no!”. Gabriel glances between me and Vincent, eyebrow quirked. 

“it’s fine you can come” I say, glaring at Vincent. What’s gotten into him? shaking my head I swim off in the direction of the piles. Both Vincent and Gabriel follow me, with Vincent glaring at Gabriel every once in awhile, while Gabriel doesn’t seem to mind.


	4. #4

“so what do you like?” Gabriel asks, sifting through the piles of things Infront of him. “I like things that are blue like my scales, and gold, like my hair” I explain “though white will work too” I add on. He nods and goes back to sifting through the pile. After a few quiet moments of looking through things, and not finding anything, Gabriel taps me on the shoulder. 

“you said you liked blue and gold, right? Well I found this” he says, offering me a beautiful golden and blue shell. I take it from him, looking at it in awe. “this is so beautiful, thank you!” I say, pulling my needle out and threading the string through it. Vincent glances over at us, scowling. 

“you really want that one?” he scoffs, looking down at it. “wouldn’t you rather have something that matches with me?” he asks, offering me one of his many brown colored shells. “um, no thank you” I refuse, awkwardly. “fine, be that way” he grumbles, putting the shell back on his string.

Why is he being so weird? What’s gotten into him? rolling my eyes at his antics I go back to looking for pretty things to put on my string, with the help of Gabriel, who doesn’t have a string but still like helping, apparently. I feel kind of bad for Gabriel, having to look at all these pretty things and not having a string to put them on. 

“hey, Gabriel. Want to go back to the ship and find some string for you?” I ask, adding another one of the trinkets he brought me to my string. “I would love that” he beams. Vincent glares at us from over the piles. “no way. Jack you are not seriously considering going to the ship with him!?” Vincent exclaims indignantly.

“I don’t see why not?” I shrug, perplexed. “he’s a stranger!” Vincent offers, fumbling for answers. “when I met you, you were a stranger” I counter, crossing my arms. Gabriel is smart, and stays quiet, not wanting to join the fight. “this is different” Vincent growls “we were pups and we were both from the bay. He’s different. Look at him!” Vincent gestures to Gabriel, angry. 

“seriously Vincent, what’s your problem? Ever since Gabriel got here you’ve been off” I snap, I’m tired of him and this whole thing that’s going on. Vincent growls, clenching his fists. “ever since he got here you’ve been ignoring me!” he counters. “he should just leave here and go back wherever he came from” he seethes, face red in anger. “Vincent he’s been here for all of an hour that’s ridiculous” I scoff. “I don’t know why you don’t like Gabriel, but you’re not going to treat him that way” 

Gabriel smiles smugly as Vincent swims off in anger, stopping when he catches me looking at him. “don’t you be looking all smug like that” I warn, swimming in the direction of the ship. Gabriel follows me, quickly catching up with the aid of his long tail and extra fin.   
“so, he seems up tight” Gabriel says, swimming in close. “yeah, he’s been different since you got here. It’s fine though, he doesn’t tell me what to do” I shrug. Hearing the sound of a boat engine, Gabriel moves over, swimming to the side. 

Curiously, I swim up a few feet to the surface, watching the boat pass. One of the boater see’s me and waves his pod over, pointing. As they pass, they pull out a camera, taking a picture of me. Slipping under the water again I return to Gabriels side, passing on the boat. “what are they doing?” Gabriel asks, glancing upwards. 

“no idea, you know how humans are” I laugh. Gabriel chuckles, hiding his mouth behind his hand. “I’m going to go take a look” Gabriel says, heading for the surface. He’s still for a few seconds, before deciding to show off by diving back down only to leap from the water. The boaters watch in awe, whipping out their cameras and snapping as many pictures as they can.

He lands in the water with a splash, grinning like an idiot. An extremely attractive, charming, idiot. Wait what? Shaking the thought from my head I swim up to him, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “you’re such an idiot” I tease. Gabriel grabs my arm, pulling me into a hug and squeezing me to his chest. “you know you love me” he purrs. My face goes red, and I squirm out of his grasp. “what, no way!” I deny, waving my hand dismissively. 

“really?” he asks, swimming closer. “because your face says differently” he purrs, tilting my chin upwards so I have to look him in the eye. My heart pounds in my chest, and I can’t hear anything over the blood rushing in my ears. He lets me go, swimming back to give me space. “just kidding” he laughs, moving on. 

Rushing after him I grab him by the arm, pulling him back. “oh no!” I hiss “you do not just say something like that and swim away!” he smirks, crossing his arms. “what are you going to do about it?” he snarks tilting his chin up. Without thinking about it I grab him by the chin, pulling him to my face and pressing my lips against his. 

Gabriel wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me as close as he can and slipping his tongue between my lips. Reaching up I bury my hands in his thick, curly hair. It’s soft and silky, like his beard which is rubbing against my chin. When he pulls back we’re both breathing heavily, and he’s grinning down at me. 

“nice.” He breathes, making me burst out laughing. “nice? Nice!?” I laugh, doubling over I’m laughing so hard. “well what else did you want me to say!?” he asks, though he’s laughing a little too. “I don’t know! Something other than “nice”, though” I exclaim. “my bad, want to try again?” he flirts, earning an exasperated eye roll. “you’re horrible” I mumble into his shoulder, letting Gabriel hug me close again.


	5. #5

“c’mere Jackie” Gabriel purrs, pulling me closer. Yawning I scoot closer, letting him wrap his arms around me. He buries his head in my hair, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. Smiling to myself I roll over, pressing my forehead to his chest. “I love you” he mumbles, making me blush. Cracking one eye open he spots me blushing. chuckling he gins down at me, he winks at me, and I get even redder. 

“stop it!” I laugh, batting his arm and covering my face in my hands. “but you’re so cute!” he teases, earning an embarrassed “merp!” noise from me. “you know you love me” he smirks, hugging me closer so I can’t escape. “you’re right” I admit, curling my tail around his. 

Our peace is interrupted as Vincent enters my cave, growling as his eyes land on me and Gabriel cuddling on the best rock slab in the cave, face twisting in a snarl. “are you kidding me!?” he snaps, throwing his arms out in frustration. Pulling Gabe’s arms from around me I sit up, glaring back. “what are you even doing here? Didn’t I tell you not to talk to me?” I ask, annoyed. 

Vincent doesn’t have an answer, so he just swims off angrily, shaking his head and mumbling to himself. Rolling my eyes I lay back down, cuddling back up to Gabriel. Gabriel doesn’t say anything, just pulling me close again and wrapping an arm around my waist. 

I look over the picture the fishers brought in for me, along with the water samples. The mer doesn’t look like any I’ve ever seen, his tail is longer, and darker in color. Plus, I can see an extra fin on the back of his tail, folded up in the pictures, though I have no doubt it unfolds. 

Biting my lip I glance back, spotting Hana, Brigitte and Lucio peering in from the door frame, quickly grabbing random things to appear busy when they’re spotted. Rolling my eyes at them I motion for them to come over, holding the picture for the to see. 

“what am I supposed to be looking for?” Hana asks, after a moment of silence. “the mer, it looks different from all the others” I explain, pulling up a picture of another random mer on my computer. “oh!” she says, nodding. “why?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve sent a copy of the picture to the MPS to see what they think of it” I answer, swapping tabs over to my notes. “anyways, lets get started on your assignment!” I say, swiveling around in my chair. The three of them all perk up, looking excited. 

“Hana, Lucio, you have your maps on you, right?” I ask, they nod excitedly. “you see where the infirmary is labeled?” I ask, they nod again. “why don’t you two head down there, Hana you can see the nursing mer and get to know them and Lucio you can use some of your new equipment to test on the mer with small injuries or minor sicknesses” I say, pointing to the room on the map. “yes!” Hana cheers, pumping her fist. Both she and Lucio scamper off, doing there best to follow the path on their maps.

Turning back to Brigitte I grab her by the arm, pulling her with me. “Brigitte, you’re an engineering major, right?” I ask. “uh, yes ma’am?” she says, confused. “good! You are going to help us build the new enclosure” I tell her. She shrugs, following along. “it’s already mostly completed, the glass panes are up and the framework is up, but we need help with building the inside of the tank. I know you spend a lot of time looking at mer’s habitats, so we want you to help us build a structurally sound, inviting space for the mer we will be holding here” I instruct, opening the door to the massive room the tank it in, facing the workstations. 

She nods, inspecting the structure and “hmmm” ing to herself as she does so. “do you have any paper?” she asks. I hand her a few sheets of paper from a nearby desk, and she pulls the pencil from behind her ear, beginning to sketch out some ideas. “are they’re going to be plants in here?” she asks, tapping her pencil against her paper. 

“well, I wasn’t planning on it, but there will be sand in the bottom so we might be able to get some plants to take root” I frown, furrowing my brow. “do you think they’re necessary?” I ask. I don’t think the MPS would think it’s something worthy of budgeting for, and there’s no way to guarantee the plants would take root. 

“I was thinking about it. Some of the mer around here plant kelp outside of their cave and they seem to like it” she says, showing me her sketch. It features two large rock structures, one in the far corner and one in the center of the tank. Both of them have multiple tunnels and small caves in them and there’s some kelp in front of the cave in the center of the cave and a few slabs of rock in the other far corner under the lighting fixtures. 

“this is perfect!” I exclaim “what do you propose the rocks should be made of?” I ask, pointing to one of them. “I was thinking about concrete or some other sort of rock, maybe some local type of rock” she explains “they will definitely be designed to look like a natural rock structure, with lots of crags and outcroppings and maybe some algae. I’ll make sure there are no sharp edges or anything to get cut on” she adds, doodling a bit of moss on the sketch. I nod along with her as she speaks. “I can talk to the MPS about it, but I’m not sure they will grant us the money for the plants” I tell her. “i like your idea, though. The sketch looks a lot like the environment outside and I think any mer we put in here will feel right at home!”


	6. #6

The next day is a flurry of excitement, with people rushing around and janitors frantically cleaning the place spotless. What’s going on? 

Lena rushes up to me, sidestepping a janitor as he sweeps the floor, and careening to a halt seconds before hitting me. “what’s going on?” I ask, taking a sip of my coffee. Lena grabs the coffee from my hand, tossing it in the nearest trash. “what was that for!?”

“Angela this is emergency we do not have time for coffee follow me right now or we all lose our jobs” lena blurts, dragging me along with her as she speed walks towards my workspace. “seriously, lena. What’s going on?” 

Lena stops dead as soon as we’re in my workspace, closing the door behind us and booting up my computer. “have you seriously not checked your email!?” she asks, logging in and pulling it up for me. Pulling out the chair I take a seat, opening my newest email; a response to the email I sent the MPS. Confused, I open it, eyes going wide as I read it. 

“Akande is sending a representative!? TODAY!?” I screech, slamming my hands on the table. “yes!” lena wails, looking panicked. “shit!” I snap, hurriedly pulling two dollars out of my wallet and thrusting it in her hands. “get two monsters, one for you and one for me” I order, turning back to my desk. “I need to reorganize everything in my office and I need to finish all my reports right fucking now” I rant, grabbing a few stacks of paper from my desk and working to put them in the right areas of my filing cabinets while lena dashes off to the nearest vending machine. 

As soon as I have my files sorted and my reports finished, I move to the women’s restroom and grab my hairbrush and hair pins, letting my hair down and brushing it out before putting it up again in a neat, tidy ponytail. It looks more put together than I’ll ever be. 

Stepping out of the bathroom I make my way back into my workspace, collecting my files on all the mer in our care, where all our funds are going and notes on all on going projects, putting them to my clip board and arranging them so they are easy to access. Lena rushes back in, handing me a monster. Grabbing my thermos, I clean It out and pour the monster in it, tossing the can in the trash and screwing the lid back on. Taking a big swig, I wince as it burns its way down my throat, inhaling as the caffeine hits. 

“the representative will be in here any minute, we need to be in the lobby right now” she says, guiding me along with her as we make our way there, trying to walk fast while still looking professional and not rushed at all.  
When we enter the lobby, the representative is already there. She’s tall and skinny, with short red hair and mismatched eyes. She’s well dressed, with a white button up shirt and high waisted dress pants. Her sleeves are pulled up to her elbows, and she taps her long-manicured fingernails against her own clipboard.

“good morning, ma’am” I greet, slowing to an acceptable pace and extending my hand to shake. She takes my hand, grip firm as she gives my hand a short shake before letting me go and resting her hand on her clip board. “I apologize for the wait, if you’ll follow me to my office we can talk about funding and current data on the way” I offer. She purses her already thin lips into an even thinner line, making them almost disappear. 

“the wait was not a problem. Please, show me to your office” she says, voice neutral as she gestures for me to take the lead. I can’t tell if that’s a good sign, but it sets me on edge anyways. “right this way!” I say, beginning the short walk to the office.

“as you can tell, we’ve been doing a lot of research lately, we just got a lot of students from the local high school coming to intern at the facility for the year, which has really helped with our numbers. I’m sure you’ve noticed from our requests for all the new equipment” I laugh nervously, laughter dying down when she doesn’t say anything or react in any way. “well, um, here is my office” I say, awkwardly holding the door open for her.

She struts into my office, setting her clipboard down on my desk and moving towards the sea facing window. Staring out the window in complete silence, she watches the mer swim around with interest. “you say this is where all the mer in the area live?” she asks, turning back to me. “yes, that is correct” I answer confused. “so, if the mer in the pictures you were kind enough to send us happened to be in the area, chances are he would stay here, correct?” she questions, tapping her fingernail against the glass to point out the window.

“erm, yes ma’am” I answer, shifting nervously. “what, if you don’t mind me asking, do you actually do here?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at me. “oh, um, we don’t really have assigned jobs here being as we are such a small facility” I stammer, blushing. She “hmms” to herself, nodding before turning back to the window. 

“may I see your clipboard?” she asks, holding out her hand for it. I hand it over, and she flips through the pages one bay one before finding the one she’s looking for. Pulling the pages off my clipboard she adds it to her own, handing me mine back. “thank you. That will be all for now. I need to call my boss, I will get back to you when It is decided what to do” she says, breezing past me.

The moment she’s gone I exhale in relief, slumping against my desk and taking a long drink from my thermos. Taking a moment to calm myself, I stand back up, glancing through my clipboard to see what was taken. To my surprise, she took a picture of one of the mer in the area outside it’s home. On a hunch I glance at the second mer in the pictures I emailed the MPS, spotting the little blue tailed mer in the background.


	7. #7

“Gabe. Gabriel wake up” I pester, shaking him a little. He opens his eyes a bit, groaning. “what is it, Jackie?” he asks, sitting up. “it’s morning, sleepy head” I inform him, kissing his cheek. “want me to get some breakfast for us?” I ask, running my hand through his hair.

“do you mind if I come with you?” he asks, stretching and popping his joints. “I wouldn’t mind” I yawn, making my way out of the cave. Gabriel follows behind me, brushing up against me as he does so. Scanning the area for any schools of fish.

I spot a small school, four or five fish swimming around. Making my way over there, I stalk the fish, crawling among the discarded boulders and getting ready to pounce. Getting in position, I’m seconds away from jetting forward and catching a fish, when something splashes into the water near me. The fish dart away, and I huff in frustration.  
I smell blood in the water, and glancing up at the thing floating in the water I spot a bloodied, dead fish in the water. Swimming up I grab it curiously, inspecting it. It’s got a big slash down the bottom, going from the neck to the tail. Taking it I swim back to Gabriel, who gives me a curious look. Shrugging I hand him the fish, which he takes and sniffs.

“why would the humans just drop food?” he asks, taking a bite of the fish anyways. “I don’t know, humans are weird” I state, looking around for more fish. “I’ll catch the next fish” he says, handing me the half-eaten fish to finish off. Thanking him I take the fish, giving it a taste. It’s nothing I’ve had before, but it’s good. Probably freshwater.  
I watch Gabriel swim around, looking for more fish. Tossing the bones away I follow behind a little bit, keeping Gabriel in sight. He’s nearing a few boats that some fish are swarming around, looking for easy prey. I draw closer, I watch as he gets ready to lunge, entranced.

He lunges, grabbing a fish. I rush up to him, nearing him before he even touches the seafloor. “you’re such a good hunter!” I gush. He grins, showing off his catch proudly. “would you like to share this one, too?” he asks, swimming towards me. Before I can say anything, a net snaps up from under the sand, encasing him.  
Dropping the fish he struggles against his bindings, growling and clawing at the ropes. I spring to his aid, chewing at the ropes frantically as he’s slowly pulled towards the surface. Panicking I chew harder, yanking and thrashing and trying desperately to free Gabriel.

The humans on the boat begin shouting and running around, one of them grabs an odd contraption, one of the ones they use to hunt fish. Aiming it at me, he pulls the trigger, and the weird, barbed rod shoots past me, glancing off my arm and leaving a big cut. The man curses, pointing at me and gesturing to another net already being raised.  
“Gabriel!” I sob, yanking on the ropes. “jack leave!” he shouts, tugging at the ropes. I go to swim away, looking back to him, crying. Before I can leave, however, the second net is dropped. This one is weighted, and falls on top of me, pinning me to the sea floor. “Jackie!” Gabriel yells, arm outstretched towards me as he’s dragged further and further up.

Two humans jump in the water, wearing the suites they use when they dive. Thrashing as they approach me, I shy away from the closest one, getting even more tangled up in the net. The humans swim closer, causing me more panic and making me try to chew through my own ropes. By now, Gabriel is out of the water, being dropped on the deck of the boat.

The humans manage to corner me in the little space within the net, grabbing the edges of the net and tying them together, forming a bag. A hook is lowered into the water and attached to the point where the bag was formed. Straining against the pull of the hook, I try to swim back to the safety of the seafloor, but soon enough I’m pulled to the surface and dumped on to the deck of the ship.

Flopping on the deck like a fish out of water, I desperately try to roll over the edge of the deck and back into the water. I spot Gabriel on the deck, thrashing as ropes are thrown over his tail and pinned down by the humans, keeping him on the deck. Gabriel swipes at the nearest human, raking his claws across the man’s chest, causing blood to gush from the wound. The man stumbles backwards, clutching at his chest.

Two more humans rush to the wounded human’s aid, while one human approaches me. I snarl at him, baring my teeth and tensing up. “c’mere!” the human grunts, grabbing for me. I lunge out of the way, causing the man to slam on the ground. “shit!” he snaps, grabbing a nearby rope and lunging again, this time slamming directly into me. 

Sitting on my tail he binds my arms behind my back as quickly as he can, clinging to me as I flop and struggle underneath him. Glancing back over at Gabriel I see he’s been restrained, with the humans carefully trying to drag him into the cabin of the boat. 

“Gabriel!” I shout, grabbing his attention. Shooting up he scans the deck, eyes landing on me. he begins struggling with new vigor, trying to fight his way to me. “Jack!” he cries, snapping at the hand of the nearest human. Pulling something from his pocket, the human who narrowly avoided getting injured pulls an odd, rubber bar with leather straps from his pocket. The rubber bar is forced into Gabriel’s mouth, and the straps are wrapped around his head and fastened around back where he can’t reach it with where his hands are bound.

I’m next, and no matter how I snap at and threaten the humans, the bar is forced in my mouth and I’m dragged into the cabin of the boat, strapped down on to the floor across from Gabriel and covered in a towel while one of the humans pokes at the wound on my arm. The human pokes part of my arm, it burns, blood gurgling onto the floor next to me. I hiss in pain, gritting my teeth against the rubber bar in my mouth.


	8. #8

I follow moira as she strides onto the docks, approaching the boat as it pulls into the dock. A few workers drag a ramp over, stepping aside so a few more workers can roll a big fish tank on wheels on to the boat. The tank, while big, is only large enough to fit one mer, with no room to turn around and only enough room to roll from ones back to one’s second.

Once the workers with the tank are on the boat, moira steps on the boat with me trailing behind her. “let me see the mer.” She demands, pushing aside the workers and letting herself in to the cabin. The workers step aside, glancing around nervously. She stalks up to the wriggling mer on the floor, inspecting it. 

Crouching down, she runs her hand over the mer’s dark scales, tapping her nails against them. The mer snarls, jerking towards her and straining against the ropes holding him down. Despite this, moira still reaches up and runs her hand through his rapidly drying hair. “aren’t you a fine specimen” she muses, hand trailing down, following his hair line, down his jawline and grabbing his chin to tilt his head upwards. 

The mer growls low in its throat, glaring up at her with its big, red eyes. “are you a breeder or a sire?” she asks, pulling a pair of latex gloves from her pocket and slipping them on. Then, she reaches down to the mer’s slit and pulls it open, pulling his genitals out to inspect them. The mer jerks, face going red and snarling loudly. She reaches in his slit again, feeling around the area where a breeder would have a hole. “sire.” She deduces, pulling her hand out of the mer’s slit.

There’s a loud sob from across the cabin space, and both me and moira look over there, spotting a second mer strapped to the floor straining against the ropes holding him to the floor. “who is this other mer?” she asks, pointing to the bright blue mer. “why did you catch him?” 

The mer is familiar, though I can’t place where I recognize it. Then it hits me, the second mer in the photo! “we accidentally hit it with a harpoon when we were taking in the bigger one” one of the fishermen explains, gesturing to the blood on the floor by him. 

“moira, this is the second one in the photo” I point out, gesturing to his tail. She inspects him, nodding. “it does seem to be the same mer” she says, squatting down and inspecting him. “what about you?” she murmurs, pulling the mer’s slit open. She pulls the mer’s genitals out, like the other one. The mer yelps as she slips her fingers in his hole, bucking his hips into her touch and crying openly. “breeder.” she concludes, tucking his member back into his slit and pulling her gloves off.

“take the bigger one in with the tank and drag this smaller one into the infirmary to be washed and stitched up” moira orders, rising to her feet. The men get to work, unstrapping the first mer and carefully lifting him into the tank. The lid of the tank is closed, locked in place so it can’t be opened from the inside. 

Two more men grab the smaller one by Its arms, dragging it across the floor and out the cabin, pulling it down the ramp and into the building. The mer in the tank watches from inside, beating against the reinforced glass and thrashing around in the water until he’s too tired to continue. 

Moira crouches down in front of the tank, getting the mer to look at her as she takes a picture. The mer snarls, baring its teeth and chewing on the rubber lining the top of the tank in the small gap left open to let in air. Moira swats the hand he’s using to pull himself up to chew on the rubber, and he drops down to the bottom of the tank again, shooting glares at everyone he passes as the workers wheel him down the ramp and towards the facility.

Moira turns, pulling her phone out and stepping aside to text someone – probably her boss – about something. I make my way down the ramp and into the facility, following the workers to the intake room where the workers will have taken the smaller mer for cleaning and stitching up the wound.

The mer has already been placed in the large inset pool while the pool is being filled with water, and two workers are holding him down, trying to get him to sit still so they can cut his bindings and get him cleaned off. The mer thrashes and tries to bite the men through his gag, causing one of them to drop their knife. The mer grabs the knife, brandishing it at them and scooting back as fast as he can. One of the men tackles the mer, grabbing the knife and quickly cutting the ropes binding his tail and arms and pulling the gag from his mouth before releasing him. He darts away, dipping under the steadily rising water as the workers climb out of the pool. 

“thank you, I think I have it from here” I tell them, holding the door open for them as they head to go dry off and change into dry clothes. They give me a dubious look but leave anyways. The mer glares up at me from the pool, huddled in the farthest corner of the pool from me. Taking a deep breath, I give him a smile, I shrug off my lab coat and rolling up my sleeves and the bottom of my pants. I switch the water off and grab the hose and bucket of brushes and soaps, carefully climbing down the slick stairs and trying hard not to trip. 

The mer eyes me warily, baring his teeth as I take a step closer, despite me being pretty far away from him. Alright, this is fine. I can work with this.


	9. #9

the strange blond human climbs into the pool with me, carrying a bucket of brushes and strange bottles. I bare my teeth at her and she freezes, slowly setting the bucket down and extending her hands. “hi there” she greets, voice syrupy sweet. “I’m not going to hurt you” she promises, gesturing to the bucket beside her and the hose she’s pulling alone with her. “I just need to get you all cleaned up” she explains. She takes a step closer and I snarl, backing further into the corner and she pauses again.

“I promise I won’t hurt you, you can even test the water to see it’s not too hot or cold” she says, pulling the hose up so I can put my hand in the water. I hesitantly swim forward, pausing a few feet from her. She gives me an encouraging look, extending the hose towards me. I slowly put my hand under the water, testing the temperature. It’s warm, but not too warm. Nice actually. 

“see, that isn’t too bad is it?” she asks, startling me. “don’t you want to be clean and smell good?” she persuades, moving the hose so some of the water splashes on my tail. It’s warm, and feels good against me scales, so I hesitantly swim forward a bit, and she pulls out a brush and one of the bottles from the bucket. I tense up as she pours a bit of the soap onto her hand, gently placing her hand on my tail. I force myself to stay still as she rubs the soap on my scales, producing good smelling suds. 

It feels nice, and it smells good. I scoot closer to her and she chuckles, earning a harsh glare from me. She pulls the scrub brush out of the bucket, scrubbing my scales in soothing circular motions. Purring I lean into her scrubbing, angling my hips into her touch so she’ll scrub more. “see, isn’t this so nice?” she asks playfully, pulling her scrub brush away from my tail. I whine, watching her dip the brush in the water to clean it, pouring more soap on the brush. 

The woman begins scrubbing again, polishing my scales until they shine. Finally, she reaches the bottom of my tail, dropping the brush back in the bucket. I pout, and she begins spraying the suds off my tail. “aww, I know you want more scrubbies” she teases, hosing down my tail and letting the suds float off into the water. “don’t patronize me” I hiss, snagging the brush from the bucket and scrubbing my own tail.

The woman laughs, setting down the hose and pulling out another bottle of good smelling soap. This one smells like the food the humans like to eat while they watch us, something called “vanilla ice cream” that I’ve always wanted to try. She pours it into her hand, before running her hand over my hair, getting soap all over it. I jerk backwards, hissing at her. “what was that for!?” I exclaim, frowning. 

“I need to get your hair clean” she explains, scrubbing my hair with her hand and getting my head all sudsy. I huff but allow her to continue. Once she’s done scrubbing my hair, she pours water over my head, and a bit of soapy water gets in my open wound, making it sting.

The woman takes her brush back from me, putting it back in her bucket and sloshes her way back to the stairs, climbing out of the pool and turning off the hose, exiting the room and leaving me in the room alone. Once she’s gone, I head to the stairs after her, pulling myself onto the first stair. The next stair is a bit trickier, as I’m wet and the stairs are made of smooth plastic.

As I try to pull myself on to the third stair, my hands slip out from under me, and I topple back into the pool, knocking my elbow against the bottom of the pool. Yelping I clutch my elbow to my chest, whimpering in pain as fire shoots up the wound on my arm.

The woman returns a few minutes later, holding a white bag with a red plus on it. Spotting me on the floor of the pool she frowns, rushing down the stairs and into the pool with me. “oh, did you hurt yourself sweetie?” she asks, pulling my arm away from my chest and opening the bag. She pulls a bottle from her bag, pouring a bit of the liquid in my wound. I expect it to burn, but instead it gets a bit colder before becoming numb. 

She pulls a needle and thread from her bag and sliding the needle in my skin, stitching up my wound from top to bottom while I watch in fascination. when she’s done, she gives me my arm back for me to inspect. I poke at the wound, but don’t feel anything. Carefully I dip my arm into the water, satisfied when it doesn’t bleed or hurt at all. 

“thank you” I mumble, looking down at the floor. “aww, you’re welcome sweetie” she coos “do you hurt anywhere else? Do you feel bad? Any vision impairments? Do you have any problems with your sense of smell or taste?” she questions, grabbing me by the chin and pulling a small flashlight from her bag and shinning it in my eyes. I shake my head, trying to pull it from her hand. “alright sweetie. You seem to be ok so I’m going to take you into the general infirmary with all the other wounded mer” she informs me, making her way up the stairs again. 

I follow her up to the stairs, pausing when I reach the very first stair and giving her a curious look from the bottom. “don’t worry sweetie, I’ll cover the stairs with towels so you can get up” she tells me, grabbing a stack of towels and dropping one on each stair for me. I carefully pull myself onto the first stair, and finding it easy, continue up the other four at the encouragement of the woman at the top of the stairs. 

“can you get on this for me so I can wheel you to the general infirmary?” she asks, pointing towards a gurney on the floor. I give her a curious look but crawl on the gurney, and she pulls the gurney up, the legs locking in pace so she can wheel me to this new place.


	10. #10

the woman wheels me through the doors and down a long white hallway with people going from room to room. A few young humans stop to watch me, two girls and a boy. One of them gives me a shy wave, and I tilt my head curiously. the human aww’s, and the woman ushers them over as she walks.

“Hana, this is the newest mer! We just took him in and he’s just been given a bath and his arm has been stitched up. Would you mind taking him down to the general infirmary while I go work with Moira on the special mer” she asks the human who she calls “Hana”, the woman nods excitedly and takes the gurney from the blond woman, continuing down the hallway with me.

“hi there! My name is Hana” she introduces “what’s your name?” I give her a suspicious look, earning a small laugh. “you can trust me, I promise” she says, pulling me through a pair of long doors. There’s a massive inset pool in the floor that takes up most the room. Instead of being entirely white and undecorated, the bottom is covered in a thin layer of sand and there are a bunch of large rocks sticking out of the water with mer leaning against them or sitting on them. One of them is cradling a tiny bundle wrapped up in a blanket. The bundle cries, and I soon realize it’s a pup. 

I perk up in interest, trying to crane my neck to see the pup from my spot on the gurney. She feels my eyes on her back and turns to spot me trying to see the pup. Smiling she holds the pup up for me to see, and I gush eyes going wide. “it’s so cute!” I exclaim, trying to crawl off the gurney and join the mer in the water. Hana catches me before I can fall off the gurney, lowering it onto the floor so I can safely drag myself into the pool with the other mer. 

I fall into the pool with a splash, sinking to the bottom of the pool and settling in the sand. One of the mer swims up to me, a skinny silver mer swims up, looking down at me curiously. “hi!” he greets, coming to sit on the floor with me. “my name is Trent”

I sit up looking at Trent. “I’m jack” I introduce myself. He settles next to me, yawning and cuddling up to me. Awkwardly I pry him off of me, swimming away a bit. He pouts a bit, trying to follow me, but I climb up into a rock with the mer carrying the pup. She greets me with a smile, shifting a bit so I can get comfortable. Settling down I close my eyes to go to rest next to the mother, who is trying to rock the pup to sleep. 

“do you need help?” I ask, not moving but to crack one eye open to check on her. She nods, offering me the pup. Sitting up I take the pup from her, cuddling it to my chest and trying to get it to sleep. No matter what I do, it doesn’t want to fall asleep. “when did you last feed her?” I ask. She thinks for a moment, before answering. “just a few minutes ago”

So, the pup isn’t hungry, then what could it be? I pull the blanket down to look at the pup’s scales, tapping my fingernails against the scales. Instead of the scales being soft, they’re hard. Either the pup is growing too fast and it’s scales hurt, or it wants to swim. “when was the last time you let it swim?” I ask her. She looks surprised, blinking a few times.

“well, I haven’t yet. I know most pups are ready to swim by six months but my pod has always had a problem with our scales hardening late” she explains “do you think she’s ready?” I nod, handing her pup back. “yeah, her scales are fully formed she should be good to go” the mer carefully unwraps the pup, who eagerly reaches for the water as she nears it. She has the same emerald green tail and dark skin as her mother, so she’s probably a kelp mer. As soon as she’s in the water, she darts off in a random direction, bumping into the largest mer in the pool; a massive, grizzled and old mer with massive scars on his face. 

He smiles at the little pup, steering her back in the direction of her mom. “I’m so sorry!” her mother apologizes, slipping into the water with her pup to guide the small thing around and teach her how to not run into things. “it’s not a problem, your pup is very cute” the larger mer laughs, waving his hand dismissively.

The woman is about to respond when her pup darts off again. I spring to action, intercepting the pup before she can run face first into the wall. The little pup laughs, holding her hands out at me, asking me for a hug. I oblige, hugging the mer as I swim the pup to their mother. The mother aww’s, taking back her pup and kissing it on it’s forehead. “what’s it’s name?” I curiously, trying my hardest not to aww as well. “this is Nadia, she’s my daughter” the woman says, brushing the girls black hair out of her face. “she’s very cute” I tell her, smiling. “thank you”

After awhile of helping the young mother teach her pup to swim, we both return to the rock we were on, with little Nadia quickly dozing off in her mother’s arms. “thank you again” the woman says, quietly so she doesn’t wake the sleeping pup. “oh it’s nothing” I whisper “she’s very cute and it was fun”. The mer looks like she’s going to say something, but the pup mumbles something in her sleep and grabs a fistful of her mothers hair, and we both fall silent so she doesn’t wake up.


	11. #11

Peering out of the tank I was forced in, I frantically search for any sign of where the humans took Jack. The red-haired woman enters the room I’ve been left in, glancing at the empty tank across the room. All it really is, is a framework with glass siding. No water, no decorations. The woman pulls out her phone, texting someone as she stares at the massive tank. 

She walks outside, stopping another red-haired girl in the hallway. This one is younger, with green eyes and a tattoo on her shoulder. The taller one with the mismatched eyes pulls the younger one in the room with her, gesturing to the tank. “Dr Ziegler tells me you have big plans for this tank, yes?” she asks. The younger one nods, glancing between me and the woman. “erm, yes ma’am, I have drawn up some blueprints for Dr Ziegler” she confirms. I study the two humans, pressing my palm flat against the glass in an effort to get closer. “do you have them on you?” the taller one asks, the smaller one shakes her head. “well then, would you mind go getting them?” 

The smaller one nods, dashing off in the direction of the hallway she came from. The taller woman approaches the tank, unlocking the top of the tank and throwing it open. “hello there” the woman says, rolling up her sleeves. I growl at her, and she smirks. Her attention is diverted away from me when the second woman enters the room again, holding a wrinkled piece of paper in her hand. 

“here are the blue prints I drew up” she says, handing the woman the paper. The woman takes the paper, studying it. “I like this. Is this room being used?” she asks the woman, who shakes her head after a moment of thought. “good. I will be contracting some workers to build this” she says, folding up the blueprint. The second woman beams, before remembering she has something to do and dashing off. 

“well, it looks like it’s time for you to get cleaned up” she says, closing the top of the tank. She grabs the edge of the tank, pushing out of the room and down the hill, into a large room with a pool inset into the floor, which the woman stops the tank right in front of. she opens the top of the tank again, stepping back. “into the pool.” She orders. I refuse, crossing my arms and not making a move. 

“get in the pool!” she orders again, this time more impatient. Again, I do not move, causing her to glare back at me. Before she can demand again, though, a hurried looking blond woman rushes into the room, panting. “so sorry I just got your text!” she apologizes. the red-haired woman waves it off. Gesturing to me. “just help me get this one in the pool”. The blond woman thinks for a moment, before enlisting the help of the red woman to pick up the tank and set it on the floor, tipping it over. 

The water flows out of the tank and into the pool, taking me with it. I fall into the pool, hitting my head and back onto the hard floor. “now, let’s get him clean” the blond woman says, grabbing a bucket from a nearby table. 

The two women carefully make their way down the stairs into the pool with me. Before I can raise my back fin and protect myself, the women grab me and pin me down, one of them reaching for the bucket and procuring a scrub brush and a bottle of something. it’s soap, I realize, and she pours it on my tail and begins scrubbing the salt off my scales. It feels nice, but I’m not going to let them know that, so I jerk and struggle and try to get away. 

The humans scrub my scales until they gleam under the unnatural light of the room. When they’re done with that, they attack my hair next, rubbing a different soap in it and forcing me still so I can’t get the dreaded suds out of my hair. One of the women spots the glower on my face, pointing it out and laughing as she gently removes the gag from my mouth. I snarl, thrashing in their grip again. 

Finally they dip my head under the water, and i can finally get the soap out of my hair. When I’m let up again, now smelling like human food and flowers. The humans let me go, and I dart for the stairs, dragging myself up them. I slip, but manage to catch myself by digging my claws into the flimsy plastic and drag myself onto the area surrounding the pool. The women follow me up the stairs, draping me in towels and rolling me up in them so I can’t thrash or hit them with my spiky fins.

“ok, what next?” the blond woman asks the red-haired woman. “now you let me go!” I snap, trying to wiggle free from my confinement. “now we need a sperm sample” the re-haired woman says, both the women turn towards me. “absolutely not let me go!” I demand, wiggling harder. The woman forces the gag back in my mouth, clasping it behind my head again. 

“so um, who’s going to do it?” the blond woman asks, blushing. “I do not get paid nearly enough to jerk off an angry mer.” The red-haired woman says, shaking her head. Sighing the blond woman walks over to a nearby closet, pulling out an odd cylindrical object, blushing redder than ever. The red-haired woman pulls open a little section of the towels right over my slit, before reaching in my slip and pulling out my member. 

I’m held still as the bold woman slips my member into a small hole in the cylinder. It’s warm and tight, soft plush walls squeezing around my member just right. I whimper as the blond woman begins pumping it up and down on my shaft, drawing shuddery breath from my lungs. She pumps faster and faster, and I can’t help but buck my hips into her ministrations, eyes rolling into the back of my head. 

I feel the familiar knot of an orgasm building in the pit of my stomach, and I thrust my hips into the cylinder one last time before I cum, semen spilling out around my member. The blond pulls the cylinder off my member, careful not to spill any of the liquid. I moan loudly, slumping over as the red-haired woman takes the cylinder from the blond woman and leaves the room.


	12. #12

The blond woman returns a few hours later, finding me bundled under every soft, blanket-like object I found in the room. I hiss as she enters the room, raising my back fin threateningly. She gives me an odd look, but doesn’t bother me, simply moving to the computer at the other end of the room. 

The red-haired woman strides in the room, throwing the doors open and pulling a gurney behind her. She spots me under the pile of soft things, and pulls out her phone, snapping a picture. I snarl, baring my teeth at her. She slips her phone back in her pocket, before lowering the gurney to the floor. “Dr Ziegler come help me get this one on the gurney” she orders, gesturing to me. I back up a bit, cornering myself in the farthest corner from them.

“do not touch me” I grow, glowering at them from my spot. “please just get on the gurney?” the blond woman pleads, sighing loudly. I hiss, slamming my tail against the wall in warning. “you’ll get to see the other mer you came in with” the red-haired woman informs me. I pause, glancing at the gurney. I could see jack. I could make sure jack is ok. 

I cautiously inch towards the gurney, glancing between the two women on either side of the gurney. “why should I trust you?” I question, narrowing my eyes at them. “well, what other choice do you have? There’s no other way you’ll be able to see him” the red-haired woman shrugs.

She’s right, if I don’t go with them, I won’t be able to see jack. I begrudgingly climb on the gurney, allowing the women to lift the gurney, legs snapping in place. They wheel me out the door and down the hallway, where people stop in the hallway to look at me. 

I’m wheeled into a large room, where a few mer are lounging around in a pool set In the floor with sand on the floor and rocks in the pool. I spot Jack curled up on a rock next to a small pup, who he’s keeping an eye on. “JACK!” I cry happily, flinging myself off the gurney. “wait no!” the blond woman yells, cringing as I smack onto the hard floor. 

“oh my god I think he’s dead” the blond woman whispers horrified as I lay on the floor, winded. Jack is staring at me, excitedly. “Gabriel!” he cheers, thrusting the pup into the hands of a nearby mer and darting towards the edge of the pool. I drag myself to the edge of the pool, flopping into the water with him. “Jackie did they hurt you!? Are you ok!? How’s your arm!?” I question him, pinning him against my chest and grabbing his arm.

It’s wrapped up, and I tear through the wrappings to find the skin has been sewed shut, and the wound looks clean. “I missed you” he murmurs, wrapping his free arm around me. satisfied that he is unhurt, I hug him tight, pressing my face to the top of his head.

“I missed you too” he responds, cuddling up to me. “are you ok?” the blond woman asks, glancing over the edge of the pool. I growl at her, curling protectively around Jack, who looks up at me curiously. “he seems ok” the red-haired woman comments, giving me a look over. 

I hiss at the women, tail lashing back and forth. “ok, ok, we’re leaving” the blond woman huffs, grabbing the gurney and dragging it out. “Gabriel where have you been?” jack asks, looking up at me, “i missed you so much! Come meet my friends” he urges, tugging me along with him over to the rock he was on before. 

“this is Maddy and her pup, Amelie, or Amy.” He says, gesturing the little pup he was guarding before. The pup, upon seeing me, outstretches her arms. “she likes you!” he gushes. I gently pull the pup from her mother’s arm, cuddling her to my chest and letting her wrap her arms around my neck. “hi there, little sweetie” I coo, pulling back as she grabs my nose. “aren’t you so cute”

Jack smiles at me and the pup, looking excited. “isn’t she adorable?” Jack asks, watching me as I gently hand the pup back to her mother. “thank you” the woman says shyly, hugging her pup. Jack crawls onto the rock, pulling me with him. I quickly throw my arm over his back, enveloping him under me and kissing him on the cheek. “I missed you so much Jackie” I tell him, combing my hand through his hair. 

“when we get out of here, I’m never letting anyone separate us again” he says, leaning up and kissing the underside of my chin. He twines his tail with mine, pressing his face against my chest and cuddling up to me. “I love you” he mumbles. I look down at him, kissing him on the top of the head until he’s blushing bright red.

After a while of just sitting and napping on the rock, the blond woman returns, carrying a bucket that smells like fish. She clucks her tongue, and all the mer around us sit up, looking around. “I got food!” she calls, holding out a live fish. Instantly she’s swarmed by all the mer in the pool – aside from us- and she chuckles.

She tosses the fish into the water, and the nearest mer darts for it, grabbing it and swimming off. She tosses a few more fish in the water, and a few more mer swim off. “you two” she calls out, gesturing to us. I sit up, keeping Jack beneath me. “come here I have food for you” she says, holding out a fish. I share a look with jack, before carefully peeling away from him and swim over to her.

She drops a fish in the water, and I slam my hand down on it before it can swim away, catching it and bringing It back to Jack.


End file.
